Vitek Vanecek News

Vanecek will make his NHL debut on Friday after going 19-10-1 with a 2.26 GAA and .917 SV% in 31 games with Hershey (AHL) a season ago. The 2014 second-round pick will get quite a bit of work this season after Henrik Lundqvist was forced to sit out for the year. A matchup with a Sabres team that scored four on Ilya Samsonov last night keeps him out of the streaming pool this early in the season.

Vanecek, who is 13-9-1 with a 2.43 GAA and .908 SV% in the AHL this season, may serve as Braden Holtby's backup vs. the Kings. Ilya Samsonov was forced to leave the Capitals morning skate after taking an Alex Ovechkin shot up high and is going through concussion protocol. If he's not 100 percent, Vanecek will be the backup.

Vanecek came up to serve as Braden Holtby's backup for a couple of games but will be replaced by Ilya Samsonov in New York. The 23-year-old returns to Hershey, where he has gone 4-2-2 with a 2.65 GAA and .894 SV% in eight games.

This is a salary cap related move. The Capitals need a forward because Nic Dowd and Carl Hagelin are out, so Vanecek comes up and the higher-paid Ilya Samsonov heads to the AHL for the game. The move opened up enough cap space for Travis Boyd to be called up. Samsonov will likely swap spots with Vanecek next week.